Abraham Lincoln had been nominated for the Presidency. The consummation
of his ambition had naturally a deep impression upon him. He came home
and threw himself on the lounge, expressly made to let him recline at
full-length. It was opposite a bureau on which was a pivoted mirror
happening to be so tilted that it reflected him as he lay.
"As I reclined," he says, "my eye fell upon the glass, and I saw two
images of myself, exactly alike, except that one was a little paler
than the other. I arose and lay down again with the same result. It
made me quite uncomfortable for a few minutes, but some friends coming
in, the matter passed out of my mind.
"The next day, while walking in the street, I was suddenly reminded of
the circumstances, and the disagreeable sensation produced by it
returned. I determined to go home and place myself in the same
position--as regards the mirror--and if the same effect was produced, I
would make up my mind that it was the natural result of some principle
of refraction or optics, which I did not understand, and dismiss it. I
tried the experiment with the same result; and as I had said to myself,
accounted for it on some principle unknown to me, and it then ceased to
trouble me. But the God who works through the laws of nature, might
surely give a sign to me, if one of His chosen servants, even through
the operation of a principle of optics."
This, seeing one's simulacrum, or double, was so common, especially
when looking-glasses were full of flaws, designedly cast faulty to give
"magical" effects for conjurors, that old books on the black art teem
with instances. Lincoln was right to demonstrate that the vision was
founded on fact, and no supernatural sight at all. His trying the
repetition was like Lord Byron's quashing a similar illusion, but of a
suit of clothes hung up to look like a friend whom he believed he saw
in the spirit. A more widely read man would have dismissed the "fetch"
like the President-elect, but with a laugh.
* * * * *
"IT IS A POOR SERMON THAT DOES NOT HIT SOMEWHERE."
President Lincoln was wont to carry his mother's old Bible about with
him in the Capital City. Often he would be consulting it in mental
plights. He said that the Psalms was the part he liked best. "The
Psalms have something for every day in the week, and something for
every poor fellow like me."
* * * * *